SUCCESS SPEED
6/7/2007 9:36:51 AM by Sandy Lindsey
Steeven Knight’s love for speed has transcended into a speedy success for YCOA, the nation’s fastest-growing private empire of yacht clubs featuring the best dockominiums and rackominiums in the world.
Most boaters will never get over 60 mph and then, only if they’re correctly powered and have wide-open, calm seas. Yet when asked what his most adventurous moment on the water was, avid speedboater and president of Yacht Club of the Americas (YCOA), Steeven Knight calmly says, “Running our new high performance cat at 160 mph.” Yes, he said 160.
“I love to fish and be around the water. I even take my boat to work,” says Knight. “I currently own three boats with two new ones — a custom 80-foot Nortech and a 43-foot Nortech cat — for a total of five. When I’m not on the water, I can be found riding horses and fishing on our ranch in Costa Rica.”
But Knight is never away from the water for long, whether at work or at play. “I’m an avid sport fisherman and I enjoy spending time on my boat,” he says. “In addition, myself and my partner, John Goodman, a longtime friend and business partner of Irwin Jacobs, are highly anticipating the arrival of a new boat, a custom 80-foot Nortech Express Cruiser, that has been in the building process for the last three-and-a-half-years.”
“I come from a long line of family boaters,” he continues. His great-grandfather was the first lighthouse tender for the Pompano Lighthouse who also opened the historical Cap’s Place in Pompano Beach. “My grandfather was born in that same lighthouse and my father was a commercial fisherman at the young age of eight. He went on to serve as a yacht captain for more than 35 years. “I’m clearly blessed with salt in my veins.”
This strong maritime heritage has led Knight to be a powerful advocate for Florida boaters. “As a longtime resident, I have advocated for registered boat owners in the state of Florida and I’ve helped to shape legislation on critical boating issues,” he explains. “My expertise is derived from a wealth of personal and professional experiences that make me particularly well-positioned to understand and educate on the topic of boating legislation.”
Notable achievements include working on a bill that exempted all marinas from the DRI (Development of Regional Impacts) process. This review would typically take an excess of a year-and-a-half and cost marinas hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, Knight and associates were able to expedite the legislation process. He also inactivated and achieved a Land Development Regulation (LDR) text Amendment in Monroe County that exempts marina requirement of FAR (Floor Area Rations) and ENROGO. The amendment has passed with both county and state officials.
Knight takes the cause of the boater and the importance of water access to our sport a step further in his daily business life. “It is the mission of YCOA to save marinas from developers and condo conversions that take water access away from boaters,” he says. “In a nutshell, my strategy is preservation through perseverance.”
Waterfront property and boat storage is in high-demand with limited supply. YCOA offers welcomed relief to the more than one million registered boaters in Florida as well as to potential investors. “We are acquiring and developing marina properties and converting them into private membership yacht clubs at which members can own either a dry or wet slip for their boat,” he says. The dry slips accommodate boats 16-50 feet and the wet slips accommodate boats in the 45-160 range. His goal is to have a YCOA five-star facility every 200 to 300 miles around the state and eventually the Eastern Seaboard. He plans to grow YCOA into the country’s largest private network of marinas stretching from Florida to East Hampton, Cancun, Mexico and the Bahamas, ensuring that boaters will always be able to go boating. And it seems thus far, he’s on the right track.